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Thursday, April 12, 2012

KOREAN MUSIC: The Story of Lee Michelle of SBS’s K-Pop Star

케이팝스타: 이미쉘 (Lee Michelle, or Michelle Lee)

Last Sunday, the “K-Pop Star” contestants were given a mission to pick
and sing a song from the list of songs suggested by fans. When Park Jin Young selected Soulciety’s “U
Just” for her, Lee Michelle said, “I think someone who could see my pain that I’ve
been harboring inside of me had chosen the song for me,” as it is about “a poignant parting” (with
the man the narrator of the song loves).
“But I didn’t want to reveal it ‘cause I thought I shouldn’t act like a
baby, but gotta be mature. I know all I
have to do is loosen up a little, but I’m afraid I might break down if I do so. I've
never expressed my true emotions in my life, even in here right now,” added she.

[Audio] Soulciety: "U Just" (2005)

In the pre-produced segment with
Michelle, Park Jin Young wondered, “While growing up, she might’ve in such
situations that she needed to learn to suppress her feelings (rather than to
admit them openly). I thought she should
release herself not only for her performance but for her life.” So Park let her sing in the dark. She was so immersed in the song that she could
finally burst into pent up tears. She
said, “I think it was a burst of mixed emotions – my memories of the man I
loved about two years ago, past regrets of things I didn’t do for and to him,
and resentments about my life that I have lived so far, keeping emotions
repressed and buried.” She said she
would sing for those who have suffered the desperate pangs of failed (or unrequited) love. And she added, “I think I will be singing the
song, thinking of the man I miss, I am thankful for, and I should’ve been nicer
to.”

Right after he revealed Michelle had to go home, Park said (to TV viewers and live audience) in an attempt to soothe her, “Michelle seemed to have had no outlet for her emotions so far (even when she sang) but (her emotional build up) eventually erupted tonight. I once asked her why it was that difficult for her to express her feelings and she answered she just hadn’t been able to do it. For she had been hurt by too many people while growing up.” He said all parents should and must teach their children not to discriminate or bully people based on skin color or ethnicity. “I’d like to give her a big hand for having managed to pull through without losing her cool and for showing, tonight, that she’s got potential,” added he.

Lee Michelle: "K-Pop Star"

Soulciety: "U Just" (aired on 04/08/2012)

Now, I'll let you in on a little secret: Koreans have been misguided by traditional
false beliefs that they are homogeneous. As a matter of fact, inter-ethnic or
inter-racial marriages in Korea date back to the Middle Ages, when such Central
Asians as Persians and Turks started to come to Korea mainly for the purpose of
commerce: e.g., the Jang clan of Deoksu; and the Seol clan of Gyeongju
that uses the Chinese latter “偰” (which means “clear”). I don't know whether the actor Jang Dong Geon (장동건) and Jang Geun Seok (장근석), the late actress Jang Jin Young (장진영), the cellist Jang Hannah (장한나) or Hannah Chang, and the Korean-American violinist Sarah Jang (or Jang Young Ju, 장영주) belong to this clan as
there are over sixty more Jang clans in Korea; but who knows some of them might. And also a princess from the city of Ayodhya in North India, Heo Hwang Ok (33~189), married King Kim
Suro of the Gaya Kingdom (the
Southern part of Korea) and became the progenitor of the Heo (허) clan. All the
Roh (노) clans, the Nam clan of Yeongyang, and the Hong clan of Namyang
are of Chinese origin; the Lee or Yi (이) clan of Cheonghae are descendants of a Jurche man, Lee Jiran (이지란); and the Lee
or Yi (이) clan of Hwasan are
descendants of the Vietnamese prince, Lee Yongsang (이용상).

Yes, I used to think Korea is a single-race country too. Then why have Koreans believed they are a
homogeneous nation? Methinks it’s
because (i) the clans of foreign origin have slowly and steadily assimilated to
and mixed with native Koreans over the past 2,000+ years; and (ii) most
importantly, they were basically from Asia and Asians share some common
physical features such as dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, and tan skin color with golden
or yellow undertone. Of course, there
were quite rare cases where some Dutchmen, Jan Janse Weltevree (1627) and Hendrick
Hamel, Jan Claezen et al. (1653) were respectively shipwrecked and drifted on the sea, and
finally arrived in the Korean Peninsula.
Weltevree (Park Yeon, 박연) and
Claezen (Nam Buksan, 남북산) were naturalized in Joseon (조선, Today’s Korea) and became the progenitor of the Pak or Park (박) clan (Note that it’s one of
many Park clans) and of the Nam (남) clan of Byeongyeong,
respectively. In short, the descendants
of immigrants to Korea have rarely looked much different.

After the Korean War (1950~1953), however, over ten thousand of Korean women coupled off with
American G.I.'s: Some left Korea with their husbands to immigrate to the U.S.
while others were left behind and forgotten by their husbands and had to suffer
from bias as well as poverty. The
deserted wives of American G.I.’s were despised and discriminated as (i) they were
unusually married to non-Korean men in a “allegedly” homogenous country and more
importantly (ii) the majority of them were engaged in prostitution one way or another and disparagingly
called Yanggongju (양공주, “Western Princess”).
And their children were treated the same way for the same reasons,
shunned as Twigi (튀기), a derisive Korean term for mixed race people that was once
used to describe animal hybrids. They got
always noticed because their appearances were practically impossible not to
notice and they were even more discriminated and bullied when they had African American,
not Caucasian, (G.I.) fathers.

In today’s Korea, more and more people get involved in inter-ethnic
marriages and interestingly enough, unions between Korean men and non-Korean
women are most frequent and common nowadays; it used to be the other way around
until lately. As Korean women seem to be
no longer interested in marrying farmers in rural areas, the Korean male farmers
have been matched up with their foreign brides through marriage
brokers just like American frontier workers married women in developing
countries through mail-order agencies. Korea
now has approx. 35,000 mixed-race citizens, and the majority of them are half
Caucasians. Unlike in the past, not a
few Korean men wed non-Korean women and more white-collar Korean women wed
non-Korean men. Accordingly, more and more Koreans are getting used to inter-racial romance
and marriage.

Even now, however, marrying foreigners is still likely to be despised
by the society. Those dating foreigners may probably be subject to gossip. Mixed race children can probably be bullied in school because of not being "allegedly pure" Koreans and because kids can be so naïvely cruel – this is why Park Jin Young emphasized
the important role of parents teaching their kids not to discriminate or bully
people simply they are/look different. But
Koreans are changing, although slowly; they are learning to set aside their
prejudices and accept people for who they are, not who they aren’t.

Now, can you imagine what kind of bias (against herself) Michelle has had to
fight growing up (and even now)? Until lately inter-racial romance was quite rare in conservative Korea and the stereotypes of inter-racial romance/marriage in most Koreans' minds in postwar Korea have involved American G.I.'s and prostitutes most of the time. According to the two segments about Michelle’s family background, if I remember
correctly, her parents split up before she was born and she has three other siblings: two of them live with their father in
the U.S. and Michelle and her older sister live with their mom in Korea. I don't want to speculate as to what her
family might have gone through and I don't know the exact reason why her love
never came true two years ago. But to my best guess, her then boyfriend’s parents might have
disapproved of their relationship because Korean parents just have undoubtedly taken it for granted that their children will marry Koreans as they believe in myth that they are homogeneous. Or her minority complex might have crept
into their relationship and ruined it, or she might have not even confessed her
love for him....

Finally, here’s Michelle’s goodbye speech: "I really thank you all for the love, encouragement,
and support you have given me even when I still have a long way to go. I really hoped that my mom and (older) sister could
see me winning the (K-Pop Star) title and now it won’t come true, I’m sorry. Yet, this is not the end; I’ve learned a lot
competing on this show, and I promise I will practice harder to improve (my
singing voice and performance). Thank
you."

P.S. When I first saw Lee Michelle
among Cho Kwan Woo’s backup singers on MBC’s “NAGASU” (나가수) or “Naneun
Gasuda” (나는가수다, “I’m a Singer”), aired on July 3, 2011, I
spontaneously thought she was a Korean-American. For her name is Lee “Michelle,” not like the
names of older generation mixed race Korean singers such as Kim In Soon (The Korean
diva Insuni’s birth name), Yoon Su Il, or Park Il Joon. When I saw her the second time on the same
show, I thought she was in the MBC chorus. Then she suddenly disappeared, so I forgot
about her. And when I saw her again at
the preliminary audition of “K-Pop Star” (07/11/2011), I didn’t recognize her ‘cause
she looked quite different.

8 comments:

Excellent post. You are quite knowledgeable about things Korean! My wife and I are Filipino and like many around the world are totally enamored with Korean culture. The food, the martial arts and the music are just a few things we love. I am often intrigued by segments of shows with people in blackface. Not knowing or understanding the context, I reserved judgement, although I find it hard to think of any production value in that today. I was happy to see Lee Michelle do well. I'd like to see her experience more celebrity. I enjoyed reading your post. Thank you.

Thanks a lot for translating what she said on the kpop star, I watched it without subs and I couldn't understand most of what was going on lol By the way, is Michelle a teenager? I've read that she is very young but at first I thought she was in her 20s because she worked as a teacher and appeared on TV before...maybe I got it wrong.

I'm also glad that you explained how non homogenuous the Korean population really is. I used to think thatiartio tarppleva they actually were so homogenuous.

Dude what are you talking about? Genetically and historically speaking Koreans are homogeneous.

MORE homogeneous for example than Ashkenazi Jews who trace common descent from ONE ANCESTOR. I'm not speaking about qualitative impressions I'm talking about scientific examination of the gene pool. There's probably no population to this day that is as homogeneous as Koreans were at the start of the 20th century. Don't obfuscate facts or fool yourself in order to make a point, no matter how worthy that other point may be in your eyes.

The rest of the stuff I think you make some good arguments about discrimination but you do logically understand that mentioning a few or even a few hundred mixed people over hundreds of years doesn't refuse the identity of Korea as a homogeneous nation when you're talking about a genepool of hundreds of millions over the time you're discussing?

As for your other point, Korea isn't "slowly changing" it's changing at a stupefying rate. It took a hundred years from 1965 to 1965 for blacks to get equal rights in America. Chinese arrived in the US in the 1840s and still face discrimination 170 years later in media, college admissions and employment. Not to mention social discrimination for Asian American males. Korea had fewer than 20,000 NON KOREAN, non US military foreign population in 1996... in the space of 15 years it's approaching Western convention in terms of acceptance of racial diversity. Every year new protections are being passed and people who've been away for even 5 years are shocked how much it's progressed. I know people who used to bitch about Korea on blogs in the mid 2000s who now find many Koreans are even more progressive than they are.

I honestly wonder when the last time was you were in Korea. Korea has a long way to go, as does the US to being an ideal place but I honestly wonder about your perspective and longheld stereotypes.

Thank you for sharing and I respect your thoughts and opinions even though I still think it depends on how strictly we define homogeneity. I think the phrase "more homogeneous" contradicts itself.

I had, have, and will have no intention to compare Korea with US, especially in terms of discrimination, hence I don't understand why you did that. I myself live here in the US, one day feeling respected, then the next day discriminated. This will probably never change as people have a tendency to discriminate one way or another. So, if Korea is really rapidly changing in a better direction as you mentioned, good for you!